Celebrating Teens - Week 25

What to use, what to use?  Well, how about an urban, gritty photo of my nephew who is home visiting from Florida?  I did his Senior Shoot last week and this is one of his favs so I thought I would use it!

We did his shoot in an old, abandoned warehouse here in town!  I tried to find out who owned it to no avail so we just went for it!  I told him if the police showed up, I would take the heat!!  LOL!  No one even stopped to see what we were up to so we were fine!  LOL!  If you want to see more from this shoot you can go here!  Now head on over to i ♥ face to check out the other teens!

Fix-it-Friday 59

I am a sucker for a fun fix and a cute baby so today I get both in the form of fix-it-Friday at i ♥ faces!!  Here is the original shot:

Is she not the cutest little thing you've ever seen?  Back on track Jo!!  You all know I like my photos just a tad lighter so I decided to pull it into Lightroom 2 (no I still have not upgraded to 3, but soon) and lighten it up a bit!  I also worked to make her eyes pop and did some cropping!  Here is what the export looked like:

I then pulled into PSE 6 and ran the PW action Lovely and Ethereal and cleaned up some little spots on her face and added some text!  Here is that final edit:

And, of course, a black and white conversion was in order!  I was going to add a texture but thought better of it at the last minute!

Now join in the fun or just see what others have come up with over at  i ♥ faces!  Busy weekend on tap here with family visiting from Florida and my nephew's senior shoot before he flies home next week!  I still cannot believe that he and the Moody Teen are Seniors already!!  My how time flies!!

All About Babies - Week 24 at i ♥ faces

The laundry is waiting to be done and the photos from the wedding are waiting to be edited while I play!  Actually, I have been agonizing (LOL) over which photo to enter at i ♥ faces today!  So many cute baby photos are coming to mind and it is really tough to decide!  After much contemplation, I decided to go with this little 13 week old cutie!!

There you have it!!  Now head on over to i ♥ faces to see all the other cute babies!!

Play - Week 23 at I ♥ Faces

What better form of play is there on a hot summer day than water play?  The Diva LOVES our pool and all of the fun stuff to play with keeps her busy!  Now go check out to see how others define play over at i ♥ face!!

BTW, this was not taken with a DSLR!  It was taken with my point and shoot because I would not take my Nikon d60 or d700 into a pool with tons of kids splashing around!!  LOL!  This is proof positive that you can take cool pictures without a really expensive DSLR (even though they are fun to play with)!

Week 22 - Barefoot

Here is my entry for i ♥ faces!  I call this one new feet because he was only 10 days old when we did this session!  He is one cute monkey!!  Now go check out the other entries and raise awareness for Soles 4 Souls at the same time!!

Faces and Flowers

Here is my entry for the week! The beautiful bride rolled her beautiful eyes several times throughout the day and I just happened to capture this moment while we were doing her Bridal shoot! Now click on the i♥faces button and go check out the other entries!

Fix-It Friday #53 - Hands-On Photo Editing Fun!

Here is today's image SOOC!  What a little cutie pie!

Here is my first fix imported into Lightroom 2 using the Super Hero preset from Siem Effects (button on side bar to click through)!  I ALWAYS import EVERY image with this preset and tweek from there!  Using LR, I was also able to pop the eyes and smooth the skin including his lips.  I also did some cropping.

I exported the image to PSE6 and ran a Pioneer Woman Action but cannot remember which at the moment (lack of coffee on my part)!  And then of course, a b/w conversion came next!

Now go check out the other fixes and have a great day!  I am working on a new post called Invisible complete with a photoshop project to go with it!

Fix-it-Friday #53

Here is the original SOOC.

Here is my first fix in Lightroom 2.  Just some cropping and a little lighter.

Here is fix #2!  Just a little more color brought to the image with a favorite LR preset.

Ya'll know I love me some black and white so here is my conversion with one of my favorite sayings!

I don't know where the saying came from but it is so true!!

Smile!! It's week 17 at i ♥ faces!!

Since my I have a little time on my hands, I thought I would enter at i ♥ faces again this week!  The theme is smiles and since I am in the business of smiles, I had lots to choose from so I chose these love birds!!  They are young and in love and I loved spending the evening with them!


Happy Monday everyone!  Now go check out all the other great smiles that are hanging out at i ♥ faces!!

Fix-It-Friday #51

Here is the photo SOOC.  The photographer of this little beauty wanted to brighten her eyes and make the colors a little brighter!  For me the first stop was LightRoom 2 to boost the exposure and crop the image!  Next I imported to PSE 6 for a few PW actions including Lovely and Bring out the Eyes!

And, of course, a b/w conversion was just for my fun!  My latest passion is for the simple, clean feeling that I get from a great b/w!! 

Now join the fun or just go browse what others have done to this photo at i♥faces!

Fix-it Friday #50

I needed to do something just because today so I decided to participate in i ♥ faces fix it Friday!  Plus I could not resist playing with a photo of a beautiful subject!!  So here we go! Here is the image SOOC.

The first thing I did was pull the image into Lightroom 2 (my editing program of choice for most things). In LR2, I corrected the white balance and brightened the image. I also used the brush to brighten the eyes!  Next I exported the image from LR2 to Elements 6.  In PSE 6 I used a Scott Kelby trick to do some skin smoothing!  I made a copy of the image and used the Gaussian blur next I added a layer mask.  I grouped the copy and the layer mask and then used a soft white white brush to paint the layer mask and viola, great skin!  I set the brush to 60% opacity and was in lighten mode.  Next I used Pioneer Woman's Bring out The Eyes and Lovely actions!  Here is how the final image looks!

But you know me, I could not leave well enough alone and decided to add a texture just for giggles!!  This texture is a freebie from Jerry at Shadow House Creations and is called XSGrunge!  I just love his textures!!

And could I really go without a bw conversion using Pioneer Woman's BW?  Here ya go!

Now go check out all the other fixes at i ♥ faces!

Dramatic Black and White - i♥faces

The EPIC steps + great shadows =  dramatic for this b/w of Sarah, a recent Senior that I photographed!  I just love this photo for this theme!

This will probably be my last i ♥ faces for a while, maybe ever!  Just cannot decide!  I guess I will play it by ear and see if a theme jumps at me, otherwise I will just keep pressing on with the business of capturing life's moments for my clients! Click on the button to join in the fun or just to see the other great entries!!

Focusing on Angles - I ♥ faces Week 12

I am one of those photographers who will do just about anything to get a cool shot so when they announced that this weeks theme would be angles I thought of several shots and then chose this one of a recent senior rep shoot! Zoey did not want to shoot on EIU's campus because everyone who lives in town does that BUT there was one thing she did not anticipate...............her mom's passion for the old Booth Library!! You see, mom graduated on these very steps that were built by her great great grandfather!! Her mom considers this HER library!! LOL! So at the end of the shoot we decided to make mom happy since she was paying and headed toward the library!

Since Zoey did not want the same thing that everyone else does, I took a lower angle and shot up to get the awesome architecture of the building and just a little sky! I was on the steps with my head and face pushed into the stones but I got what I was after! In the end both mom and Zoey were pleased!!

See what other angles people came up with over at i ♥ faces!!

i♥faces is bundled up!!

Torture, I tell you!! It is torture to pull up photos of snow and cold and winter when we all have spring on the brain! Anyway, the ladies at i♥faces decided that this was a good week to do a bundled up shot so that is what I did!

The Diva loves to play in the snow so, of course, she is my subject! All I can say is thank goodness there is NO SNOW on the ground right now!! LOL!! If you like cold and snow, make your way to i♥faces to see the other great entries!!

Jump For Joy - i ♥ faces

Nothing says joy like a jumping wedding party!  LOL!  This photo then erupted into a leaf fight but no one seemed to mind!!

That's a wrap for me today!!  Jump on over to i ♥ faces to see the other high flyin' folks!!  I will be post a peak at the wedding I shot Saturday very soon!!

Fix it Friday

 

 

SOOC

Fix #1 in Light Room 2

Fix #2 in Light Room 2 and texture added in PSE 6.

Now head on over to I ♥ Faces for other great fixes!!

I ♥ Faces - Hands

This is without a doubt my favorite photo of ALL TIME!  These are the hands of the people I love!  The top hand belongs to my father in law, who passed away in September of last year along with the Diva, the Knight and the Moody Teen!  This photo tells the story of generations!  3 or 4 generations depending on how you look at it since my kids are 14 years apart!  You can read the original story that goes along with the photo from last February here!

This picture hangs over our entertainment center as a constant reminder of what was and what will never be again!  It is a photo of love and I am proud to share it with the i ♥ faces community and you my readers (for my readers, this is the second time.  For i ♥ faces, the first)!

We miss you Papa!!